Charlotte, NC (February 21, 2011) – “If I tried to put it into words, I
wouldn’t be doing it any justice, that’s for sure.”
Trevor Bayne, the winner of Sunday’s Daytona 500, struggled to find the right words to describe one of the most incredible, insane and improbable
events in the history of Daytona International Speedway.
Bayne’s win was just the cherry on top of a Sunday that featured a mind-boggling, warp-speed, tandem-style dance on the all-new Daytona racing surface. Thanks to the ultra-sticky, super-smooth ribbon of asphalt, drivers could actually run with their foot on the floor in nose-to-tail formation lap after lap – two- and three-wide much of the time.
You’re kidding me, right?
Suddenly, we had new ways of passing and fresh tactics never seen at Daytona before. New terminology like ‘disengaging’ were suddenly NASCAR speak. Listening to Kyle Busch ‘coach’ Joey Logano in Saturday’s Nationwide race as to how to more efficiently make the ‘swap’ from leading to pushing was
spellbinding.
Crazy racing, slingshotting at wicked closing rates, swapping positions lap after lap. This was a brave new world – we’ve never seen anything like this
before.
Having several radios in your car to communicate with the competition and even more incredibly – to get guidance from their spotter – was also a NASCAR first Sunday and broke new ground as to how teams may
communicate/race from this event forward.
Then, of course, the racing gods also put the fates in play scrambling the field with a pair of Daytona ‘Big Ones.’ In the first multi-car incident, the Hendrick Motorsports cars of race favorites Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon tangoed to a crushing halt together in the Daytona turn four sod while the second melee with just a handful of laps remaining wiped out
Daytona 500 dreams for Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman.
That left an improbable cast of characters with a chance to make Daytona history and Bayne – who turned 20 the day before – accommodated by becoming
the event’s youngest winner ever.
Meanwhile, Bayne’s car had a ‘throwback’ style paint job on it with decal saluting the team’s most illustrious driver, David Pearson. The last time the Wood Brothers won at Daytona – 1976 with Pearson at the controls. Bayne later said it was Pearson who gave him the best pre-race advice when he told
him to “keep his nose clean.”
Scary coincidence? Racing Karma? A NASCAR conspiracy to grab the attention of both the coveted 18-25 youth market and 50-plus ARRP fans with a single
swing of marketing genius?
C’mon, even they aren’t this good. This couldn’t have been a fix.
The odds of Bayne winning the biggest race of the year – in just his second Sprint Cup Series start – with a team that hadn’t won a 500 in 35 years were
so astronomical that even Vegas didn’t post that action.
In the end, Sunday’s 500 even bookended the lore of the 1979 event – the last time Daytona International Speedway was repaved. The first-ever flag-to-flag live television coverage of that race brought NASCAR into the American lexicon of sports. The racing was fast, furious and the finish featured an improbable ending with Richard Petty in Victory Lane and the Allisions – Donnie and Bobby – duking it out with Cale Yarborough in wild fist fight back in the Turn 3 dirt. All, right there in your living room. Sunday’s Daytona 500 had it all – except for the fight – and will go down as
one for the ages. Just about any age.
Never Again In case you’re thinking will this summer’s race at Daytona will produce the same kind of racing we saw Sunday in the 500, the answer is no. It will be much hotter in July and the new track surface won’t have as much grip. It will be much more difficult for car to touch and not spin out. Also, the hot Florida sun will start to cure the track so it won’t have as much grip this summer and even less next year for the 500. As they say in the garage, the new pavement will never again have this much ‘goody’ in it. Throw in that by the time we get back to Daytona in July, NASCAR will most assuredly change the rules – maybe yet another restrictor plate or a new nose that doesn’t match up as well. They’ll have some technical revision that will change the racing dynamics. After all, it is NASCAR, right? 10-4? It will also be interesting to see if and how quickly NASCAR addresses the multiple radio and competitor conversations we saw at Daytona Sunday. Will teams be able to do this again at Phoenix this week? Why not? To our knowledge, there is no rule against it. It rode at Daytona, or was that a
one shot deal? Is the genie out of box here?
In our opinion, it is. Sunday’s radio situation opens up a couple of issues for NASCAR. First, drivers and teams choreographing moves with competitors over the radio is sure to come under fire with more credibility insinuations by members of the uninitiated mainstream sports media world. There’s enough of that already. Also, we’re all for safety, but frankly, as a longtime NASCAR spotter, I’m not sure how safe this kind of deal is. It’s ingenious what happened on the radio Sunday, but did this work? Switching spotters and tracking your vehicle off the other in front or one in tow is crazy. This has to be looked at pretty hard. FYI – I’m glad I’m retired from spotting. I’d be damned if I’d be giving my driver over to another spotter on the
final lap of the Daytona 500.
Hopefully, NASCAR will reign in this radio issue quickly.
Up Next Phoenix for the Cup, Nationwide and Truck divisions this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Super and Pro Short Track stockers in Alabama at ‘OPP’ (South
Alabama Speedway) for ‘The Rattler’ Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy.
John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.
His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.
Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.
Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.
You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.
Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com
Close CallsJohn CloseNASCAR